Quiz

2. What connection does Asmol make between the land covered with seawater and Pobby and Dingan? Why is that important to the story?
While Ashmol is searching Pobby and Dingan, he remembered that Dad has told him for each star in the sky there is an opal. Lightning Ridge where he lives was once covered by sea water and how kind of sea creature had been found. He realized that if all these amazing thing was true, Pobby and Dingan maybe true. He started to believe that Pobby and Dingan did existed. This is important in the story which explain Pobby and Dingan are true or not and this lead up to Ashmol find "something" at the end. That shows Ashmol is trying his best to look for Pobby and Dingan, and he is not just a person who did not believe anything.

5. In the end of the story, Ashmol talks about what it’s like to “believe in something which is hard to see. Or to keep looking for something that’s totally hard to find.” In the novel, both dream and imagination are important to the characters. In particular, Ashmol's mom Annie also held a dream/imagination. She was once looking at a photograph which was took in England. In the photo, there is her ex-boyfriend and herself when she was young. This shows that Mom misses her life in England, and it seems like she doesn't like the life in the ridge very much. Her dream maybe going back to England and have the same life as she had in the past. Not staying in the Ridge, waiting for his husband find something precious and become wealthy. However, she need to take care of her children and stay with the family. This photo is kind of her dream she had in the novel. 
Every one has their unseen dream, Kellyanne's dream is staying with her imaginary friends Pobby and Dingan. Which was very important to her that after Pobby and Dingan was missing, Kellyanne soon became very sick. This shows that how the belief of Pobby and Dingan is important to Kellyanne. The unseen dream in this novel is like the hope for the characters to live.

Chapter 8-12

1. Why do you think that Ashmol decides to search for Pobby and Dingan for real instead of just pretending
Because Kellyanne is getting really sick, he thinks that if he searched for them more seriously, she would feel better. He knew that if he was just pretending to search them, Kellyanne won't believed him. He did not want Kellyanne to think he was still that Ashmol who didn't believe anything. So at the end, he tried he best to search for them and he believed what Kellyanne said she felt that they were missing under the mine.

Spring story

Spring break is the most wonderful thing during March, but unfortunately, I need to spent nearly 50 hours on the plane. I went back to China and then I soon flew to Australia because my mom was there. Spring break is 14 days at all, two days I spent on the plane, and ten days in Australia. Of course, I didn't want to go. Instead of going to Australia and being controlled by my mother, I prefer to stay in China, having relax, meeting my friends.
I have a brother which is 13 now. Unlike me, he went to Australia to study abroad. Because he is too young to live on his own, my mom is going with him. The place called home is the place where your mother is. That was the reason why I need to go to Australia. It is the second time I visit there. The last time was 4 years ago, and it wasn't a good memory for me. Our family travelled to Australia, and we met typhoon and the highest temperature. Besides that, I was sick for most of the time during the trip. That was why I hated Australia.
After a long time "dying" on the plane, I finally arrived Sydney and it was raining outside. Mom told me it hasn't been raining since 2 month ago. Looks like this place doesn't welcome me very much. The first day in Australia was very tired. I could not get to sleep because of the jet lag. I waked up in the morning, and I felt I am tired already. I went to the market with my mom, and I felt like I even don't have any strength to carry the bags. I lied on the bed for the rest of the day, I was afraid of if I would get sick again. Luckily, it was just my worry. I got better in the next day, mom said that I was just too tired because of the travel and jet lag. After several days living in that place I disliked, I felt like this place wasn't that bad as I thought. Sydney is a beautiful city which surrounded by the ocean. It is a city which means it is like Shanghai and Newyork and it is very convenient. It has both nice environment and crowded people. I felt like it was a combination of China and American. Mom said that was because Australia has people from different place moving there to live. It was a place with different culture.
During these 10 days in Australia, I kind of changed my mind of Australia was a bad place. After living there for several days, I found out why my mom liked this place that much. It has a better education which is good for my brother, and she likes the weather there. She enjoyed the view of the ocean and the bay, and so did I. However, I still feel like I prefer to live in China, because I missed my friends and my own bedroom. Anyway, this experience makes me think Australia is a good place.

Pobby and Dingan

Pobby and Dingan are imaginary friends of Kellyanne. They are Kellyanne's best friends and they always play with each other. They came from Kellyanne's mind, and only Kellyanne herself can see them. Except Kellyanne, nobody knows what they actually look like. In the novel, Kellyanne said that"They didn't look like anything in particular, but Dingan had a lovely opal in her bellybutton, only you had to be certain kind of person to see it. And Pobby had a limp in his right leg"(chapter 5). That was the only description that Kellyanne gave to Ashmol when Ashmol was trying to find them. Besides that "Pobby and Dingan don't sleep and they don't shoot. They are pacifists"(chapter 7). It seems like Pobby and Dingan don't have the same hobby as human being. They did not eat meals, but instead they like lollipops.
In my opinion, I don't believe that Pobby and Dingan really exist. They are just imaginary friends for Kellyanne. They are not real and they just exist in people's mind. In my opinion, I think both of them is very lively character as they all like playing on the swing and playing shooting games. They were also very naughty, as they even talk with Kellyanne while she is at school. Furthermore, Dingan must have a pretty appearance as she won the third prize in the Opal Princess Competition. Both Pobby and Dingan are only visible to Kellyanne, and they are lively while the time they spend with Kellyanne. They might be shy to strange people, as they could probably hiding themselves and nobody could see them. That's why although Ashmol organized a Tow search, they were still lost and nobody could find them. Beside that, they might not like Ashmol very much, as Ashmol always hit them and treat them very bad. 
All in all, that is all my opinion about Pobby and Dingan. They maybe do not like me, as I don't believe they exist, and I thought they are trouble maker. Because of them, Dad was called ratter, and the fence was burned. I could not think more about what they look like, perhaps they make me blank in my mind as they do not like me.

Vocabulary

claim: place which has mine
Mum asked one night when she’d got back from her job on the checkout at Khan’s and me and Dad were relaxing after a hard afternoon’s work out at the claim.

wobbling: shaking
The noise of a car drove into our ears and a four-wheel-drive police jeep came wobbling down the creamy red track that leads to our claim.

startled: excited by a sudden suprise.
My dad turned around, startled. He was totally off his guard.

figment: something unreal and come from imagine.
Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

rummaged: search
He rummaged through piles of rocks.

ute: a member of an American Indian people of the Utah and W Colorado
Kellyanne glared at me through tears the way she did the time I slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time I walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings.

crackpot: idiot strange people
Lightning Ridge was full of flaming crackpots as far as I could see.

Mello Yello: kind of drink which is orange flavor
I said, hiding my anger in a swig from my can of Mello Yello.

mates: friends, people that stay together with a good relationship 
“I still say Kellyanne could do with some real-live mates,”

opal: a translucent mineral consisting of hydrated silica of variable color; some varieties are used as gemstones
My dad would come back from the opal mines covered in dust

fairdinkum: Fair truth
“Fairdinkum?”

imaginary: something which comes from people's mind, unreal
but I wasn’t crazy enough to talk to imaginary friends

grub: worms
She said they were quieter and better behaved than me and deserved the grub.

fossilized: transfer in to a fossil 
There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.

mammoth: an extinct animal
There’s rumours going that Lucky Jes has taken out a million-dollar stone and a fossilized mammoth tooth with sun-flash in it.

In class writing

In the first two chapters of the book Pobby and Dingan, the author described a little girl with two imaginary friends and the attitude of people around her. 8 years old little girl Kellyanne had two invisible friends: Pobby and Dingan. She is very special that she liked to play with her imaginary  friends rather than getting together with other kids. Pobby and Dingan were very special and important to her. Although, there are some people who had imaginary friend when they were young. The reason which caused that is probably because they were lonely and they want friends. Children are always imaginative so that it is not hard to understand some little kids have friends that do not exist. However, I did not believe Pobby and Dingan are real. As I said they were imaginary friends for Kellyanne, and they were created by Kellyanne. In chapter one, "[Ashmol] slammed the door of the ute in Dingan’s face or the time [he] walked over to where Pobby was supposed to be sitting and punched the air and kicked the air in the head to show Kellyanne that Pobby was a figment of her imaginings"(Rice 53). This showed that those two friends were unreal which there is nothing happens even they got hit or hurt. Besides that, while Pobby and Dingan were lost, Kellyanne tried to find them and kept shouting for a long time but nobody replied. They couldn't be found as they haven't existed yet. All in all, I don't believe they are real even the story itself is a fiction which something amazing could happen. From a scientific point of view, I thought Pobby and Dingan are unreal.

What did I improve?

After a long time revising my essay, I think now I know how to write a literature response. In a literature response, a thesis is very important which should be introduced in the introduction, and it is usually led up by a hook. My introduction used to be only two sentences: my thesis and a little detail about the book and the movie. Now it starts with a question as a hook, and my answer to the question which lead up my thesis.
Besides that, my body paragraph improved a lot too, it used to be too much details and summary as I wanted it to be specific. However, as I kept adding details, I felt confused and forgot to do analysis for my main point. So I deleted some details which is not related to my topic, and instead summarizing in my own words, I used a quote and made several analysis on it. And all my quotes and  analysis is related on my thesis and according to the topic sentence.